Tall ships of Rouen

[Deleted]

Every 4 or 5 years, Rouen has a tall ship event called the Armada de Rouen. The next one will be in 2013. It lasts 10 days and it is pretty spectacular.

There are not many tall ships in the world, so it takes quite a bit of organization to bring them together at the same time. Most Americans probably remember the tall ship event in the port of New York for the Bicentennial in 1976, even if they only saw photos of it.

Anyway, I went to Rouen to see the Armada once, and it was quite impressive, even though it was not a day when the ships were sailing (some say that this is even better because you can visit them and climb aboard).

Rouen is not all that close to the Atlantic Ocean, and bringing the ships in is not all that easy -- there are 3 bridges to go under, the Pont de Normandie, the Pont de Tancarville and the Pont de Brotonne. While the Pont de Normandie is high enough for all of the ships, I think, the others require the masts to be tipped to go under.

   

In any case, the ships are motivated and they arrive in Rouen sooner or later. Just about all of them are manned (and womanned?) by naval cadets of the various countries -- France, England, Italy, Brazil, Colombia, Norway, Mexiso, etc. I don't know if they learn much that is pertinent to 21st century navigation, but I'm sure that they have a great time.

I happened to be there on the 14th of July that year, and the Patrouille de France did a flyover, just as they had done on the Champs Elysées during the military parade earlier in the day.

It was remarkable how perfectly maintained these ships are, even though most of them are more than 100 years old.

Finally, the mastheads are absolute works of art. I think I will try to be there in 2013 to see it again.

[Deleted]

this is just fabulous Kerouac!!
I had the great thrill of seeing the TallShips from all over that sailed up the Atlantic Coast during the Bicentennial in 1976...I got to see them in Bridgehampton,out at sea, as they were sailing up, (there was an announcement what time they would be passing and we all went down to the beach that day) and then again in NY Harbor on the 4th of July. It was one of the greatest thrills of my life...
They are so beautiful!!!

[frenchmystiquetour]

I saw them when they visited Boston in 1976 and it was an event that is still talked about in there.

[bjd]

I don't know if it still exists, but there was a sailing ship called the Belem on which you could take holidays, of course, working on the ship. It always tempted me, but I was afraid I would have to climb up into the rigging and there is no way I would do that.

[Deleted]

The Belem is the French naval ship (originally Brazilian). I looked it up, and it was actually built in Nantes. It was both British and Italian in the last century. After being used for Italian naval training, it was used for French naval training. In this century, it has indeed been chartered for some cruises, but basically it goes to various events -- like the 400th anniversary of Québec in 2008, a festival in Morocco in 2009, and this summer it was in Dublin.

[bjd]

It's beautiful. I had saved an article with contact information years ago. I would love to sail on it, especially since I don't get seasick.

[Deleted]

Yes,there's a couple of them off the West Coast ,just outside of San Diego, that you can also go sail on for varying periods of time.A good friend of mine worked as a galley cook on it for a couple of years. He loved it.
I have a pic somewhere in an email,I'll look for.

[Jazz]

Beautiful! The mastheads are works of art. I would love to go.

[Kimby]

"Finally, the mastheads are absolute works of art."

K2, I believe they are figureheads. Mastheads are the listing of newspaper staff, aren't they?

[Deleted]

[lola]

These are beautiful. Having read the Aubrey/Maturin series set during early 19th C makes these ships so much more interesting to me, realizing how they were loaded with cannons to batter each other, then patch up and sail away to do it again if lucky.